On the eighth day, Debra called.
The agency had agreed to support my application, provided I passed an emergency home study.
The assessor arrived within twenty-four hours.
Her name was Gloria.
She walked through my house with a clipboard.
She checked the bedrooms.
Kitchen.
Bathrooms.
Backyard.
Then she stood inside the converted workshop and looked at the bunk beds.
“You built these?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Last week.”
She wrote something down.
Then she asked about childcare.
I explained that I could reduce my workload for roughly four months.
After that, I
